RAPID: Salvage Recovery of Miocene Fossil Primates and Other Vertebrates from Localities Threatened by Hydroelectric Dam Projects along the Rio Santa Cruz, Argentina

研究地点是阿根廷最南部（圣克鲁斯省）的沿着圣克鲁斯河。该项目是关键和时间敏感的，因为两个水电站大坝的建设正在开始，这将淹没化石地区进行研究。2012年开始沿着进行坝址准备和基础设施改善。 因此，从这一地区恢复标本可以挽救那些否则很快就会被科学界遗忘的信息。圣克鲁斯省以其早中新世脊椎动物化石而闻名于世，这些化石的年龄从大约1900万年到1500万年前不等，并以其独特的能力来记录南美洲（SA）灵长类动物的进化和适应，也称为扁鼻猴或新世界猴，它们构成了南美洲热带现代生物多样性的重要组成部分（17属和130种）。 这些化石地点位于圣克鲁斯组，记录了一个被称为中新世中期气候最佳期（MMCO）的气候变暖时期的开始，这解释了它们出现在目前分布范围以南20°的纬度。这些遗址包含了最完整的阔鼻龙化石，从它们在大陆上首次出现的时间大约是26 Ma，直到全新世。这些完整的化石所揭示的信息为科学家们提供了对早期宽鼻类生物学，生态学和生物发生学的无与伦比的见解。要解决的科学问题是广泛的古人类学和古生物学的意义，并包括核心的具体目标1）照明正在进行的辩论的古代生活的动物学家庭的新世界猴和哺乳动物群落结构和环境的理解，他们生活在其中;和2）的脊椎动物的反应的分析MMCO的气候变化。这项研究将继续美国和阿根廷科学家之间的长期合作，这些科学家来自灵长类动物学，地层学，无脊椎动物和脊椎动物古生物学以及地球化学等不同领域。它促进了学生和专业人员的持续培训，特别是包括一名美国研究生和几名阿根廷学生在古生物学和古脊椎动物学方面的实地培训。

The research to be conducted is the along the Río Santa Cruz in far southern Argentina (Santa Cruz Province). The project is critical and time sensitive because construction is beginning on two hydroelectric dams that will inundate the fossil localities to be studied. Dam site preparation and infrastructure improvement were begun along the river in 2012. Recovery of specimens from this region therefore salvages information that will otherwise soon be lost to science. Santa Cruz Province is world-famous for its Early Miocene vertebrate fossils, which range in age from about 19 to 15 million years ago, and for its unique capacity to document the evolution and adaptations of South American (SA) anthropoid primates, also called platyrrhines or New World monkeys, that make up a significant fraction of the modern biodiversity of tropical South America (17 genera and 130 species). The fossil sites occur in the Santa Cruz Formation and document the onset of a period of climate warming called the mid-Miocene Climate Optimum (MMCO), which accounts for their occurrence 20° of latitude south of their current distributional limits. The sites contain the most complete fossil platyrrhines from their first known appearance on the continent at about 26 Ma until the Holocene. The information that has been revealed by such complete fossils has given scientists unparalleled insights into early platyrrhine biology, ecology, and phylogeny. The scientific questions to be addressed are of broad paleoanthropological and paleontological significance, and include the core specific aims of 1) the illumination of ongoing debates about the antiquity of the living zoological families of New World monkeys and an understanding of the mammalian community structure and environments in which they lived; and 2) the analysis of the responses of vertebrates to the climatic changes of the MMCO. The conduct of the research will continue a longstanding collaboration between US and Argentinian scientists from disparate fields of primatology, stratigraphy, invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology, and geochemistry. It fosters the continued training of students and professionals including, especially, the field training of a US graduate student and several Argentinian students in paleoprimatology and vertebrate paleontology.